ESPN at NASCAR’s Daytona Speedweeks

ESPN will provide two weeks of comprehensive coverage of Speedweeks and the start of the NASCAR season at Daytona International Speedway across its multimedia platforms. Television coverage, highlighted by a Daytona 500 origination for ESPN’s flagship program SportsCenter, an expanded schedule for ESPN2’s daily news program NASCAR Now, coverage of NASCAR Media Day on ESPNEWS, and NASCAR Nationwide Series practice and qualifying, will culminate with the NASCAR Nationwide Series 300-mile race on ESPN2 on Saturday, Feb. 13.

Other TV highlights include NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series preview shows on ESPN2 and the airing of multiple past Daytona 500 races on ESPN Classic.

SportsCenter at Daytona airs Saturday, Feb. 14, at 4 p.m. on ESPN2, originating from the Fan Zone at Daytona International Speedway. SportsCenter is ESPN’s flagship studio show and television’s only nightly, one-hour sports news program. Offering in-depth reports on breaking news, creative highlights, features and in-depth analysis from award-winning journalists, SportsCenter is television’s most comprehensive and longest-running sports news show.

In addition to programming on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNEWS, which includes extensive coverage on SportsCenter, other ESPN platforms including ESPN.com, Jayski.com, ESPN Radio, ESPN Deportes, ESPN Classic and ESPN Mobile Properties also will surround the NASCAR Nationwide Series race telecast and the Daytona 500 with NASCAR-related programming and coverage.

ESPN2 is the home of the NASCAR Nationwide Series all season, with select races to be televised by ESPN and ABC. ESPN also will televise the final 17 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races of the season, with three on ABC.

ESPN2 also airs live coverage of NASCAR Nationwide Series qualifying on Friday, Feb. 12, at 3 p.m., as well as NASCAR Nationwide Series practice coverage on Thursday, Feb. 11, at 11:30 a.m.

NASCAR Now, ESPN2’s daily news and information show totally dedicated to NASCAR, originates from Daytona with daily one-hour episodes the week of the Daytona 500. The Monday, Feb. 8, edition at 5 p.m. will feature a roundtable discussion with ESPN analysts Jarrett, Wallace and Ricky Craven hosted by Bestwick. The weekend edition of the program airs at 9 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 14, the day of the Daytona 500.

Mike Massaro and Nicole Briscoe will co-host ESPNEWS’ coverage of NASCAR Media Day on Thursday, Feb. 4, at noon, and conduct exclusive driver interviews from Daytona for the three-hour telecast. They’ll be joined for analysis by Craven.

ESPN2 airs season preview shows for both the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series on Tuesday, Feb. 9, starting at 2 p.m. ESPN Classic will have an airing of ESPN’s acclaimed original movie 3, based on the life and racing career of seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Dale Earnhardt, at 8 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 14.

ESPN’S MULTIMEDIA PLATFORMS SURROUND DAYTONA

SportsCenter at Daytona — SportsCenter will present a one-hour special from Daytona International Speedway on ESPN2 at 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 13, the eve of NASCAR’s Daytona 500. Hosted by Allen Bestwick, with analysts Rusty Wallace, Ray Evernham and Brad Daugherty, SportsCenter at Daytona will preview the Great American Race with analysis, opinion, and interviews.

ESPN.com — Extensive coverage will originate from Daytona. Award-winning motorsports journalists Ed Hinton, Terry Blount and David Newton and ESPN.com motorsports editor K. Lee Davis will lead the reporting team, with additional contributions from NASCAR Insider Marty Smith as well as ESPN The Magazine’s Ryan McGee. Hinton, Blount, Newton and other ESPN reporters and personalities maintain and regularly update blogs with their insights, perspectives and more within the ESPN Insider premium content section. ESPN.com, along with Jayski.com, will feature extensive video, audio and editorial coverage of the 2010 NASCAR season, as well as providing multiple ESPN Fantasy games and content distributed to other emerging platforms such as Apple’s iTunes Store and Microsoft’s X Box Live.

ESPN.com RaceCast, ESPN.com’s enhanced, live race-day applications features a live animated graphic display, track information, lap leaders, race leaders, driver information and live in-race chat with ESPN announcers and reporters. NASCAR Surround features one-stop shopping for highlights, features, observations and stats of all races, running Friday-Monday. As part of ESPN.com’s integration with Jayski.com, veteran racing voice Mark Garrow returns as a frequent contributor this year, producing podcasts and hosting regular chats on ESPN.com.

Jayski.com — ESPN-owned Jayski.com is considered one of the most influential Web sites in the motorsports world. Jayski has gained a reputation for consistently breaking industry stories and serving as the ultimate resource and trackside companion for NASCAR fans. Jayski’s editorial content during Daytona Speedweeks will help NASCAR fans keep up with late-breaking news, including updating any on-track incidents and garage news. Jayski also helps NASCAR fans understand the qualifying procedure for the Daytona 500, and NASCAR’s Top 35 rule, with updates and scenarios. And Jayski’s popular paint scheme section helps fans stay abreast of the new looks for NASCAR race teams.

ESPN Radio – The Raceday program airs from 6 – 7 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 13, and Sunday, Feb. 14. Both programs will originate from Daytona with host Pat Patterson and include news, interviews and reports. In addition, ESPN Radio will have daily reports and interviews during other programming in the week leading up to the race.

ESPN International – ESPN International is NASCAR’s exclusive worldwide syndication agent outside of North America. NASCAR and ESPN are leveraging their combined resources to identify broadcast partnerships on a country by country basis to expand the scope and reach of NASCAR coverage. ESPN International is one of the world’s leading syndicators of sports programming and this relationship is helping maximize coverage of NASCAR and provide a solid base of distribution. Through a combination of sales and network programming, the 38 NASCAR Sprint Cup races and 35 NASCAR Nationwide Series races are now available to 113 countries and territories around the world.

ESPN Classic – To help get NASCAR fans fired up for the opening of the season, ESPN Classic re-airs episodes of its signature series SportsCentury featuring some of NASCAR’s greatest drivers during afternoons on Wednesday through Friday of race week. Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Tim Flock and Tony Stewart will be featured.

In addition, starting at 8 p.m. on Feb. 13, the eve of the Daytona 500 , ESPN Classic televises highlights of five of the best Daytona 500 races of all time – 1979, 1998, 1999, 2007 and 1976.

ESPN Deportes — ESPN’s 24-hour, Spanish-language sports network in the U.S. will carry the NASCAR Nationwide Series race on a tape-delayed basis beginning at 4 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 15. ESPN Deportes’ NASCAR commentator team will feature Andrés Agulla (play-by-play) and Alex Pombo (analysis). In addition to the telecast of the race, ESPN Deportes will have segments for its edition of SportsCenter.

ESPN Deportes Radio — The only around-the-clock national Spanish-language sports radio network in the U.S., and MRN Radio have an agreement that makes ESPN Deportes Radio the exclusive Spanish-language radio home of NASCAR racing’s premier events. ESPN Deportes Radio will provide up-to-the minute NASCAR news and information, highlighted with coverage of NASCAR’s three largest racing series – the NASCAR Sprint Cup, the NASCAR Nationwide Series and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

ESPN Mobile Platforms — ESPN’s multiple mobile platforms will give fans on-the-go access to all the racing action, news and developments. ESPN Mobile TV (available on MediaFLO and MobiTV and via Sprint) will deliver live mobile streaming of NASCAR Nationwide and Sprint Cup races throughout the season, as well as news, analysis and feature video programs. ESPN MVP on Verizon Wireless will feature race highlights from NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series races throughout the season, as well as all the latest news and information, ESPN.com columnists, in-progress race leader boards and customizable alerts. In addition, fans can find ESPN.com coverage of NASCAR on the ESPN Mobile Web site — the leading sports site on the wireless Web (and among the most-trafficked wireless Web sites in the world), with 9 million unique users per month — and real-time results on the ESPN ScoreCenter mobile app.

ESPN produces comprehensive, multi-platform coverage featuring telecasts of the final 17 NASCAR Sprint Cup races, including the 10-race “Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Additionally, ESPN2 is the home of the NASCAR Nationwide Series all season. All television programming is produced in high definition. ESPN’s NASCAR coverage extends to ESPN.com, SportsCenter, ESPN the Magazine, ESPN Classic, ESPNEWS, ESPN Deportes, ESPN Radio and ESPN International, among other ESPN platforms. ESPN aired 262 NASCAR Cup Races over a 20-year period starting in 1981 and returned to NASCAR coverage in 2007. The network’s award-winning, live flag-to-flag coverage on ESPN has been honored with 19 Sports Emmy Awards, as well as many industry honors. It is widely credited for helping to popularize the sport nationwide.